The Blue Pages (I)

It would be funny, if it weren't so predictable and intellectually dishonest, to see Tom Hedderson out again the other day, trying (and almost entirely failing) to stir up media outrage about the "federal presence" issue.

According to (slightly outdated) statistics previously discussed here, the much-maligned Ontario, Quebec, and — shudder! — the National Capital Region, have, collectively, about 65% of the federal public service. That is to say, a smaller share of the PS than of the Canadian population; this, despite the obvious and massive concentration of federal government jobs in the federal capital: National Capital Region alone had about 40% of the federal PS.

"Aha!", screams Tom Hedderson and the Our Fair Share Choir! "See!"

But, not so fast there.

It's hard to get hard, raw data on the provincial public service in Newfoundland and Labrador, other than a global breakdown for its overall size. (Reader's Digest version: on a per-capita basis, it's big, big, big.)

Sub-provincial data, if it exists, is not easy to come by. Perhaps Open And Accountable Williams Administration would see fit to publish it. Perhaps the Harris Centre for the Study and Promulgation of Newfoundland Nationalist Mythology would see fit to compile it and study it at great length for two reports it could release just before and during the next provincial election.

It is, however, quite easy to get provincial government contact names and phone numbers.

Now, the data has some quality issues, often being out of date (Kathy Goudie is still an MHA; Vic Young is still Chair of the Blame Canada Commission), reduntant (MHAs who are cabinet ministers often have two or more entries; there are people with as many entries in the directory as titles they hold), and other nit-picky things of that ilk.

However, accepting the data on its face value, there are, as of this evening, 4,933 entries in the directory.

Now, let's make a couple of working assumptions, which I will gladly abandon if the provincial government compiles and publishes detailed geographical breakdowns of the kind we're approximating in this exercise.

First, assume that there is no geographical bias in the "undercounts"; that is, that provincial employees who don't have phone listings of their own, or unlisted ones, are equally likely to be found anywhere in the province that their listed colleagues are.

Second, assume that there is likewise no such bias in the duplicates, obsolete entries, and other data quality issues noted above.

Finally, assume that the location of the telephone exchange of their government phone number is a 1:1 match to the location of their provincial government office.

Assumptions made? Good.

Now, then: fully 67% the provincial government employees listed in the government directory have an office telephone number that begins with the Confederation Hill exchange-prefix 729 that is so familiar to anyone who's ever looked in the Blue Pages.

Sixty-seven percent. That's two-thirds.

And that's before you factor in another three percent who have office phone numbers in other St. John's telephone exchanges besides 729.

That's 70% of the provincial civil service in Capital City.

And that's before you even consider the larger provincial public sector, including the indirectly provincial jobs at the University and in the larger, provincial-scale hospitals.

By way of reference, the entire St. John's Census Metropolitan Area — city and burbs — constitutes 36% of the provincial population.